The Canaries trailed 10-6 at halftime and 14-12 early in the second half before storming home with three unanswered tries to earn a week off ahead of a prelim final showdown with the loser of this weekend's major semi-final clash between Wests and Thirroul.

Having had to take the the tough route to the past two deciders via the prelim final against rested opposition, captain-coach Michael Henderson is relishing the chance to put his feet up and watch the major semi-final.

“I've had the conversation with a few of the senior boys, we obviously had to get through today, but this run is much better than what we've had the last two years,” Henderson said.

“We get a game, a week off, and then consecutive games rather than having the stop-start we've had. It's in our control now, we've just got to turn up in two weeks.

“It puts us in a good spot, we can have the week off and watch the other two teams go at it.  With any luck it's a draw and they'll go to extra time and it's a brutal game.

“We've had an inconsistent year, we've been patchy, but we knew we had a lot of experienced guys and we just needed to get to this point of the season and give it a shake. We've built off some momentum of the last couple of weeks.

“We've had to work out a few things and, positionally, we weren't set on a side until three or four weeks ago so it's been a work in progress but we've got some combinations working. Whoever we come up against, they're both great teams, and we'll need to be better.”

The Dogs shot out of the blocks with an early try to young half Tyler Moon, while Paul Roberts snapped two penalty goals. The Canaries hit back through a try to Keith Lulia and briefly took the lead when Deejay Harris crossed soon after the resumption.

Collies took it back through a try to Brad Manton but it was all Dapto from there, with Nimi Qio shrugging off some first-half errors to bag a double with Peni Botiki sealing the deal with a late four-pointer under the posts.

Five-eighth Harry Seijka was the ultimate star, laying on two tries and nailing three clutch conversions.

“It was one of those game we always have against Collies, they get the run of if it for 20 minutes then we get the run and it was no different today,” Henderson said.

“They started on fire and we were probably on the back foot, they got out to a bit of a lead early but what got us the result was our defence early in the second half.

“We defended our line for five or six minutes straight, they had four sets there through our errors and some good footy from them, but in the end that's what got us the points. After that we went the length and scored and we controlled the game for the last 20 minutes. It was a really good effort and I couldn't be prouder of the boys.”

It brought a tough premiership defence to a close for the Dogs, with coach Nathan Fien conceding the poor discipline that's plagued his side's season again proved its achilles heel.

“There's 17 very disappointed players in that change room. It's a bit of a numb feeling,”Fien said.

"We were definitely confident that, if we could get in and play our best footy, we'd be a chance at giving it a real shake but we weren't good enough today. It's probably been the story of our season with the inconsistency. 

“The way we started I thought it was one of our better ones. Our first 20 minutes were pretty clinical in our efforts and our approach to our game plan and what we were trying to do.

“I thought we were still in control at halftime but Dapto's second phase is what really hurt us. The ill-discipline at times when we were in control released the pressure and allowed them to get a bit of momentum.

“Once they had that in the second half we just couldn't stop it unfortunately. They're a quality side and you just can't do that against them.”